Internet browsers are known in the art. Such browsers are commonly used in personal computers, tablet computers and mobile telephones. With the advent of mobile telephones that integrate internet communication within a handheld telephone, internet browsers are increasingly in use in mobile telephones.
The interaction of a user with an internet browser typically involves the user viewing an internet page presented on the screen of a computer or a mobile telephone, wherein the page comprises elements that may include text and/or graphical information. In addition, internet pages often contain elements referred to as hyperlinks, which enable the user to visit another internet page by selecting the hyperlink (for example, by the click of a computer mouse). The hyperlink usually is visually represented by a text or graphical element. The hyperlink may be selected by a computer mouse click. However, with the advent of touch sensitive screens that are widely used in mobile telephones and tablet computers, the selection of hyperlinks is often achieved through the touch of a finger on the screen, or via the touch of a stylus on the screen.
A typical user experience with an internet browser would therefore involve the user navigating to a particular internet page, which would initially be displayed as a blank page, with the various text and graphical elements subsequently appearing within the page once they are, individually, downloaded to the device via the internet. Because of the need to download these elements, it is often the case that the various graphical elements (which may be of a considerable file size) will appear on the screen, sometimes one by one, over the course of a period of time. This period of time is dependent on factors including the speed of the internet connection and the file size of the graphical elements. In practice, this time period is often 5-10 seconds (or more) in duration.
One problem with many such prior art arrangements stems from the fact that, prior to the downloading of these graphical elements, the spacing that they will eventually occupy on the display screen is not reserved, but may be occupied by elements that have downloaded fastest. For this reason, as the internet page loads, the appearance of additional graphical elements causes a rearrangement of the text and graphical elements already displayed on the screen. This typically involves a downward displacement of any content that is below the specified position of the graphical element. For example, consider the situation where an internet page comprises a list, wherein each item on the list is indicated by a quantity of text (such as the titles of various items for purchase) and also by a graphical element (such as a picture of each item for sale). As this hypothetical page loads, the first elements to appear would typically be the text. As each individual image subsequently downloads and is rendered on the display, the distance between consecutive items within the list typically increases, because of the appearance of the images. Where a page has a large number of such images as part of a list (such as on an internet auction website), the process of downloading of images and consequent rearrangement of the visual elements within the display can take a considerable length of time.
In the above example, many of these visual elements (text and/or images) would be hyperlinks, i.e., elements that the user is required to select in order to visit a desired internet page. The rearrangement of visual elements during download of the internet page therefore gives rise to a particular problem, wherein a user may bring their finger to touch the screen to select a particular hyperlink, but will find instead that in the time it has taken for their finger to reach the screen, a rearrangement has taken place such that their finger touches a hyperlink that they did not intend to touch. This gives rise to the navigation to an internet page that the user did not intend to visit (or the execution of a command or downloading of a file, in the case of selecting certain page elements that are programmed to initiate such events), which may have a range of undesirable consequences. The most harmless (albeit undesirable) consequences include the frustration and unnecessary use of time in needing to navigate back to the original page, waiting for it to fully reload, before making the correct selection. More serious consequences, however, include the downloading of undesirable internet content, the unintended completion of an internet purchase, or the purchase of an unintended item or service.
Numerous internet browsers have been provided in the prior art. While these internet browsers may be suitable for the particular purpose of viewing internet pages, these browsers only allow for accurate selection of hyperlinks if care is taken to allow sufficient time to elapse in order to enable all elements within an internet page to fully download.
To fully understand the cause of this problem with the prior art arrangements, one must consider the neuropsychological mechanisms underpinning the commission and control of a motor action by the human brain. This involves a multi-step process, wherein visual information is received and processed, and a judgment is made as to whether to perform a motor action. The commissioning of a motor action involves an interaction between a network of brain areas, including the frontal cortex (which has a role in decision making), the basal ganglia (which have a role in the control of movements) and the motor cortex (which contains motor connections that ultimately extend to the various muscles within the body). Once a motor action has been commissioned but has not yet been performed, a brief period of time exists within which the brain retains the ability to abort or modify the action if the circumstances requiring it change. However, there is a subsequent period of time within which the brain is unable to abort or modify the action, even if such a change were required. In neuropsychological experiments, this phenomenon is measured as the “stop-signal-reaction-time”.
For this reason, the brain is unable to abort or modify the motor action it has initiated to select a hyperlink once this “point of no return” has been reached. Should the hyperlink be displaced downward on the screen and replaced by an undesired hyperlink prior to the contact of the finger with the screen, then the user will be unable to inhibit their motor action resulting in the wrong internet page being visited.
Several further circumstances can compound this problem. Firstly, the problem is greater with motor actions that involve a larger distance of movement of the finger (such as the touching of a finger onto a screen) as compared to movements over a smaller distance (such as the pressing of a mouse button). Clearly as smartphones and touch sensitive computer tablets become more prevalent, this problem will become more prevalent. Secondly, where the user has difficulties with mobility, either due to disability or due to the natural process of lengthening of reaction times that occurs with ageing (a population that finds increasing importance in the use of mobile telephones and the internet), in these circumstances the problem is dramatically more marked.
An additional compounding factor that causes this problem to be particularly marked in some prior art arrangements is that the functioning of internet browsers is inherently susceptible to delays due to bandwidth constraints affecting the ability of the user to download data or of the host sever to serve data. A particularly prevalent reason for such bandwidth constraints is the fact that, when internet browsers operate from mobile devices they often download data via the means of a cellular radio telephony connection, the download speed of which is heavily dependent upon cellular signal strength. Paradoxically, the stated and intended use of mobile devices in enabling cellular communication in non-fixed locations, therefore is seen to be the same factor that is directly associated with increasing affectation by the problems, stated above, with the prior art arrangements.